Is there or is there not support for Realtek ALC650 intergrated sound? I have sound support compiled into the kernel but nothing else, no modules nothing. I have emerged alsa driver but when I got to choosing a module I got lost and I don't think there is a module for my intergrated sound. I did find an article about a kernel patch for this sound card allowing it to use the ac97 module but this was for the 2.4.17 kernel. Everything I read seems to point to using the ac97-codec module though. Are the instructions on this site for setting up sound old (the ones in the desktop guide)? Well, if anyone has any suggestions please suggest

OK. this is a bump and some more questions and information on the situation. I have been reading up on getting alsa working. I have recompiled my kernel and removed support for any sound devices and made sure that generic sound support was compiled into the kernel. I have emerged the alsa-driver and this is as far as I have gotten where things have gone right.

Now for the things that are going wrong. I added the needed module information to /etc/modules.autoload and then tried to modprobe snd-ac97-codec and I get nothing accept that the module can't be found. I have also tried snd-card-ac97-codec and both without the "-codec" part and still nothing. What is the proper way to add the sound module to modules .autoload? I did find that alsa no longer uses snd-card-module and I changed that, but still having no luck with modprobe. The path to where I found the sound modules is different than what the "desktop guide" says too. Mine are in a totally different location which is, hmmm, thats wierd. The modules are not there now! Just went to check the path and they are gone. Well, guess its time to start over.

I'm no expert on this topic, but I think I can get you pointed in the right direction. In modules.autoload, you should only need soundcore.
Next, take a look at /lib/modules/<your kernel version>/kernel. Hopefully you have a sound directory in there. If not, try recompiling the
alsa-driver. Look in the sound directory for a module that resembles your "sound card". Also, you'll need to have /etc/modules.d/alsa
configured. You'll probably want to load snd-pcm-oss and snd-pcm-mixer. Also, if you rebuild the kernel, you'll need to rebuild the
alsa-driver.

Man this is a pain Glad you let me know about having to recompile the driver though for alsa, though I was just going kookoo or something. So in module.autoload all i need is "soundcore". Someone really needs to update the desktop howto on this site man. Its extreemly frustration to fallow all the instructions and get nowhere.

PS: What do I need to add to /etc/modules.d/alsa file? I was looking in there and it looks like that is where I need to specify what sound card to use etc.. Kinda like the /et/modules.d/aliases file. Do I need to do anything to aliases? Thanx for the assistance man

I think I may have given some incomplete information. snd-pcm-oss and snd-mixer-oss should probably go in /etc/modules.autoload as well.
Here's what I've got, but I'm not certain it is complete.
/etc/modules.d/alsa